Law Times

Page 12 January 22, 2018 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com 80-per-cent support of unit owners required under the Con- dominium Act to change those provisions. But Lash suggests that Toronto's new regulations may help similar condo corpora- tions wishing to change their dec- larations in the future. "This condominium that tried to amend it may find the City of Toronto's regulations helping them a bit," she says, be- cause investors now, according to the City of Toronto regulations, will not be able to use their units for short-term rentals. With Toronto's new regula- tions, only residential property and condo owners who own their units and have it as their principal residence can rent them out for short-term stays. The intent is to limit the ability to convert long-term housing units into accommodation for tourists and protect the limited number of residential rental units. According to the city's staff report that led to the bylaw, the overarching principals in the regulations involve allowing for short-term rentals, minimizing negative impacts on housing affordability and availability, maintaining community stabil- ity and minimizing nuisances. Lash wonders about the city's ability to regulate that. Lash, however, had another approach for a downtown Toron- to condo board wrestling with the issue. There was concern over short-term rentals in a building, where the condo corporation's declaration clearly permitted them. While some owners want- ed the short-term rentals abol- ished, others wanted to retain the ability to rent out their units. According to Lash, there was no realistic prospect of getting the 80-per-cent vote necessary to have the declaration changed. The solution? The condo cor- poration became Canada's first to enter into an agreement with Airbnb to regulate short-term rentals. The Friendly Buildings agree- ment allows for the control and f low of information about which units are being rented, when and for how long to the condo man- ager, and it also sees the corpora- tion getting a portion of the rent- al earnings to cover the addition- al wear and tear of the common elements. Another plus for the condos is that Airbnb's property and liability insurance covers the corporation and the common elements. The deal also provides obvious benefits to Airbnb. "It's a way that gives the con- dominium corporation the abil- ity to enforce more than they would have in the normal course of enforcing their declaration because now they have a mecha- nism through Airbnb to deal with people who don't comply," says Lash. "I think we've got to work with them because it's here to stay. And what I found is that there's certain advantages to working with them on this Friendly Buildings [pro- gram]." LT condominium complexes that vary so dramatically across the province, Escayola says. That is complicated by the fact that there are a finite number of parking spaces in existing buildings and not all are man- aged the same way. Some condo boards treat parking spots as separate units that can be pur- chased, some are exclusive-use spots and other condo corpo- rations consider them a general common element overseen by the condo board. One proposal Escayola thinks would work is to pro- vide condo owners with the right to install a car charger if they fulfil a series of require- ments, such as paying all the related expenses themselves. But he is particularly concerned over the proposal that requires condo corporations to install a prescribed number of spaces based on the number of units in the building in common ele- ment parking. "Having to balance limited resources and competing needs or wants — this is the age-old challenge of condominium cor- porations," he says. The goal of condo living is for people to pool their resources, giving them the ability to share common elements they may not be able to do on their own. The condo board then becomes the governing body of that small community, managing those as- sets while balancing the needs and wants of condo owners with their obligations all within the limited resources available. Escayola worries that adding to those obligations by requir- ing condo boards to install a prescribed number or ratio of chargers when they're requested could skew that balance that the condo corporation was able to previously achieve. "To me one size does not fit all and we must respect the abil- ity of boards to manage their own assets," he says. "You've got to let them build what makes sense in their community." The provincial government indicated that the feedback it has received will assist the ministry in finalizing the proposed regu- lations to establish requirements to make it easier to install EV charging stations for residents and owners in condominiums. Its goal is to have these changes come into force this coming spring. LT Continued from page 10 Goal to have changes come into force this spring New regulations may help Continued from page 11 Christopher J. Jaglowitz is worried that some of the suggestions by the province around electric vehicle infrastructure bypass legislation intended to protect condo owners. Medico/Legal Your case is too important. You deserve the right EXPERT WITNESS. 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